Land tenure rights, community participation and conflict management in community forestry in Cameroon: A study of the Mount Kilum /Ijim Community forestry Projec

Efforts by many developing countries, scholars and the international development community to endorse the concept of Community-Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) Programs that seek to redress the failures and inequalities of prior top-down centralized development strategies of the late 1970s and 1980s may be deluded because the concept is based on an inadequate understanding of existing relationships, particularly between the state and local communities. CBNRM promises to balance the conservation and development needs of local communities who are called upon to participate and take an active role in managing resources either alone or in association with other stakeholders like Non-Governmental Organizations or the state.;Governments in many developing countries are implementing CBNRM programs and seemingly devolving responsibility for resource management to local communities. Cameroon's first experience with CBNRM programs is the 1987 joint Birdlife International and Government of Cameroon Mount Kilum/Ijim Community Forestry Project (MKIFP), which aims to develop a community forestry project for conservation purposes and eventually devolve control, benefits and management to communities bordering the forest.;However, Cameroon like many developing countries implementing CBNRM programs seem unaware or willing to ignore the structural impacts on traditional or local community management systems and institutions of more than 50 years of colonial and post-colonial dominance over community organization. Responsibilities for resource management during colonial and post-colonial times were undertaken by the state. Reverting this role back to local communities not only poses challenges to communities but could lead to conflicts and compromise resource sustainability.;Research in communities bordering the MKIFP, interviews conducted among various stakeholders, community forestry user groups, the DO, Fons, project staff and government magistrates, and a review of proceedings of conflict cases brought before the administration, project staff and the courts show: (a) lack of local participation in project management; (b) persons seeking access to the forests whether---farmers, herders, and other forest users---has been to petition successively, often repeatedly, the various traditional, courts, and state institutions available for adjudication, in rarely ending cycles; (c) the concept of community forestry is still ambiguous because of its experimental nature; and (d) a deep distrust of government by local people.;CBNRM programs may, instead of leading to the predicted outcomes of local participation and efficient resource management by local communities, may instead lead to unpredicted outcomes such as unending cycles of conflicts. Care must be taken to prescribe CBNRM programs as a panacea for resource management problems in developing countries.